News-Press & Gazette Company
The News-Press & Gazette Company (NPG) is a media company based in St. Joseph, Missouri, wholly owned and operated by the Bradley family. It is presided by Brian Bradley and David R. Bradley, with Hank Bradley (retired), Eric Bradley and Kit Bradley serving on its board of directors. All are descendants of family patriarch Henry D. Bradley and his son, David Bradley, Sr.
 | |
| Private | |
| Industry | Media |
| Founded | 1845 (when St. Joseph Gazette was founded) |
| Headquarters | 825 Edmond Street, St. Joseph, Missouri, United States |
Key people | Brian Bradley (President) David Bradley (Chief Executive Officer) Henry H. Bradley (Executive Vice President and CFO) |
| Products | Newspapers Television Radio |
| Website | www.npgco.com |
News-Press & Gazette's properties include daily and weekly newspapers in Missouri and Kansas, 15 radio and television stations in California, Idaho, Oregon, Colorado, Missouri and Texas. The NPG group generally concentrates on the Kansas City and St. Joseph areas for their newspapers, and the western United States for their broadcasting properties.
History
The company traces it roots back to the St. Joseph Gazette which began publishing in 1845. The paper chronicled much of travel into the Old West along the Oregon Trail and California Trail. It was the only newspaper that was sent west on the first ride of the Pony Express. The Gazette eventually merged with the News-Press by publisher Charles M. Palmer. When Palmer died in 1949, Henry D. Bradley was co-publisher of both papers starting in 1939 and bought them outright in 1951.
The Gazette ceased publication in 1988 when its sister, the afternoon News-Press, transitioned into a morning newspaper; however, the family kept the "Gazette" and "G" in the company name. The Bradley family expanded the focus by forming local cable television operator St. Joseph Cablevision in 1965. News-Press & Gazette expanded into broadcast television with the 1995 purchase of KVIA-TV in El Paso, Texas; this expansion continued into the 2000s with the launch of a 24-hour cable-only news channel for St. Joseph, St. Joe NOW, along with News-Press & Gazette's acquisition of several full-power and low-power television stations (such as KECY-TV in El Centro, California and KTVZ in Bend, Oregon).
In 2011, the Bradley family sold the cable division, which by that time expanded its service area to parts of California and Arizona under the name NPG Cable, to Suddenlink Communications.[1] On March 19, 2012, News-Press & Gazette announced it would establish a low-power television station in St. Joseph that would serve as the company's television flagship and the first broadcast station that the company built and signed on; it would be an affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company (with subchannel-only affiliations with The CW and Telemundo). The station was created using the K26LV-D station license (which it acquired, along with K16KF-D, from Sunrise, Florida-based DTV America 1, LLC on March 14 of that year);[2][3] it launched on June 2, 2012, as KNPN-LD.[4] On July 25, 2012, NPG announced an agreement to purchase ABC affiliate KMIZ and Fox affiliate, KQFX-LD from JW Broadcasting.[5] The deal was consummated on November 1.
Major assets
Print publications
St. Joseph, Missouri area
- St. Joseph News-Press (St. Joseph, Missouri; flagship newspaper)
- Green Acres (St. Joseph, Missouri)
- Save NOW (St. Joseph, Missouri)
Northeast Kansas
- Atchison Daily Globe (Atchison, Kansas)
- Hiawatha World (Hiawatha, Kansas)
- Miami County Republic (Paola, Kansas)
Greater Kansas City metropolitan area
- The Daily Star-Journal (Warrensburg, Missouri)
- Gladstone Dispatch (Gladstone, Missouri)
- Courier-Tribune (Smithville, Missouri)
- Read It Free (Osawatomie, Kansas)
Television stations
Television stations owned and/or operated by News-Press & Gazette Company are a mix of full-power and low-power stations, most of which carry main channel affiliations with the Big Four television networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox). Its stations also carry affiliations with The CW (with the company's CW outlets receiving their programming from The CW Plus programming service) and Spanish-language network Telemundo, via subchannel-only affiliations or affiliations with separately licensed low-power stations that are rebroadcast as subchannels on its full-power stations in the respective markets.
Stations are arranged alphabetically by state and by city of license.
Notes:
- (**) – Indicates that it was built and signed on by NPG.
| City of license / Market | Station | Channel TV (RF) |
Owned Since | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| El Centro, California - Yuma, Arizona | KECY-TV | 9 (9) | 2008 | Fox/MyNetworkTV ABC (DT2) The CW (DT3) Telemundo (DT4) |
| KYMA-DT 1 | 13 (13) | 2014 | CBS NBC (DT2) | |
| KESE-LP | 35 / | 2008 | Telemundo | |
| Monterey - Salinas, California | KMUV-LP | 23 (21) | 2013 | Telemundo |
| KION-TV | 46 (32) | 2013 | CBS The CW (DT2) | |
| Palm Springs - Indio, California | KCWQ-LD ** | 2 (26) | 2006 | The CW |
| KYAV-LD | 12 (12) | 2012 | Independent | |
| KUNA-LP | 15 / | 1997 | Telemundo | |
| KDFX-CD | 33 (33) | 2008 | Fox | |
| KPSP-CD | 38 (18) | 2012 | CBS | |
| KESQ-TV | 42 (28) | 1996 | ABC | |
| Santa Barbara - Santa Maria - San Luis Obispo, California |
KEYT-TV | 3 (27) | 2012 | ABC MyNetworkTV (DT2) Bounce TV (DT3) |
| KCOY-TV 2 | 12 (19) | 2013 | CBS | |
| KKFX-CD | 24 (24) | 2013 | Fox | |
| Colorado Springs, Colorado | KRDO-TV | 13 (24) | 2006 | ABC Telemundo (DT2) |
| Idaho Falls - Pocatello, Idaho | KIFI-TV | 8 (8) | 2005 | ABC Telemundo (DT2) The CW (DT3) |
| KIDK 2 | 3 (36) | 2011 | CBS Fox/MyNetworkTV (DT2) | |
| KXPI-LD | 34 (35) | 2011 | Fox/MyNetworkTV | |
| Columbia - Jefferson City, Missouri | KMIZ | 17 (17) | 2012 | ABC MeTV (DT2) MyNetworkTV (DT3) |
| KQFX-LD | 22 (30) | 2012 | Fox | |
| St. Joseph, Missouri | KNPG-LD ** | 21 (9) | 2012 | NBC The CW (LD2) Telemundo (LD3) Bounce TV (LD4) |
| KNPN-LD ** | 26 (15) | 2012 | Fox CBS (LD2) News-Press NOW (LD3) | |
| KCJO-LD ** | 30 (28) | 2014 | CBS | |
| News-Press NOW ** | 3 (cable) / 26.3 | 2012 3 (previously owned from early 2000s-2011) |
News/weather | |
| Bend, Oregon | KTVZ | 21 (21) | 2007 | NBC The CW (DT2) Fox (DT3) |
| KFXO-CD | 39 (15) | 2007 | Fox | |
| KQRE-LD | 20 (20) | 2007 | Telemundo | |
| El Paso, Texas - Las Cruces, New Mexico | KVIA-TV | 7 (17) | 1995 | ABC The CW (DT2) Weather (DT3) Azteca América (DT4) |
| K22NM-D 4 | 4 (22) | Unknown | NBC | |
Other notes:
- 1 Owned by Cox Media Group, NPG operates KYMA via a resource sharing agreement.[6][7][8][9]
- 2 Owned by VistaWest Media, LLC, NPG operates these stations via a shared services agreement.
- 3 This channel was sold to Suddenlink Communications as part of its purchase of NPG's cable division but was reacquired by NPG in May 2012.[10] It was originally operated as a cable-only channel prior to June 2, 2012.
- 4 Owned by Hubbard Broadcasting, NPG operates K22NM-D.
Radio stations
| AM Station | FM Station |
| City of License/Market | Station | Owned since | Current format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colorado Springs, Colorado | KRDO 1240 | 2006 | News/talk/information |
| KRDO-FM 105.5 | 2015 | News/talk/information | |
| Palm Springs, California | KESQ 1400 | Unknown | Spanish religious music |
| KUNA 96.7 | Unknown | Regional Mexican | |
Former assets
Print publication
Former publications
| Publication | City |
|---|---|
| Louisburg Herald | Louisburg, Kansas |
| Osawatomie Graphic | Osawatomie, Kansas |
| Johnson County Sun | Overland Park, Kansas |
| Kansas City Nursing News | Overland Park, Kansas |
| Kearney Courier | Kearney, Missouri |
| Liberty Tribune | Liberty, Missouri |
| Smithville Herald | Smithville, Missouri |
| Read It Free - Northwest Missouri | St. Joseph, Missouri |
Television
Former stations
| City of license / Market | Station | Channel TV (RF) |
Years owned | Current ownership status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tucson, Arizona | KOLD-TV | 13 (32) | 1989–1993 | CBS affiliate owned by Gray Television |
| Yuma, Arizona | KYMA-DT | 11 (11) | 2014–2020 1 | defunct, license surrendered in 2020.1 |
| Grand Junction, Colorado | KJCT | 20 (7) 2 | 2006–2013 | Cozi TV affiliate, KGBY, owned by Chang Media Group |
| KKHD-LP | 8 (20) 2 | 2007–2013 | ABC affiliate, KJCT-LP, owned by Gray Television | |
| Savannah, Georgia | WSAV-TV | 3 (39) | 1976–1993 | NBC affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group |
| Austin - Rochester, Minnesota | KAUS-TV/KAAL-TV | 6 (36) | 1980–1985 | ABC affiliate owned by Hubbard Broadcasting |
| Jackson, Mississippi | WJTV | 12 (12) | 1983–1993 | CBS affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group |
| Hattiesburg, Mississippi | WHLT (semi-satellite of WJTV) |
22 (22) | 1987–1993 | CBS affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group |
| Wilmington, North Carolina | WECT | 6 (44) | 1986–1993 | NBC affiliate owned by Gray Television |
| Sioux Falls, South Dakota | KSFY-TV | 13 (13) | 1985–1993 | ABC affiliate owned by Gray Television |
Notes:
- 1 Owned by Northwest Broadcasting (and later Cox Media Group), NPG operated KYMA via a resource sharing agreement. In 2020, CMG surrendered the license of KYMA, and moved its NBC programming to a subchannel to KSWT (which would subsuquently change its callsign to KYMA).
- 2 KJCT used virtual channel 8 (and operated on analog channel 8 prior to 2009) and KKHD-LP operated on analog channel 20 under NPG ownership.
Cable operations
NPG owned cable systems under the name NPG Cable, Inc.. On November 29, 2010, NPG announced that it had agreed to sell all of its cable systems to Suddenlink Communications for $350 million; the acquisition was closed on April 1, 2011.[1][11] NPG Cable systems operated in the following communities:[12]
References
- Cablevision announces sale, St. Joseph News-Press, November 29, 2010.
- FCC document for transfer of K16KF-D and K26LV-D Archived 2016-09-24 at the Wayback Machine, March 14, 2012.
- Fox Station Coming to St. Joseph, Mo., Broadcasting & Cable, March 20, 2012.
- Fox station to debut on June 2 Archived 2012-05-19 at the Wayback Machine, St. Joseph News-Press, May 17, 2012.
- http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/61007/npg-buys-abc-affil-in-columbia-mo
- NPG Takes Over Yuma/El Centro Stations ftvlive.com, 2 July 2014, Retrieved 9 July 2014.
- One Station Group Makes Big Move in a Small Market, TVSpy.com, 3 July 2014, Retrieved 9 July 2014.
- Lobeck, Joyce (July 9, 2014). "4 major TV network affiliates here will share management". Yuma Sun. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
- Lobeck, Joyce (July 9, 2014). "Yuma TV stations await completion of agreement". Yuma Sun. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
- NPG reacquires cable channel; News-Press 3 NOW will return to local ownership by May 1, St. Joseph News-Press, March 5, 2012.
- Suddenlink closes NPG Cable buy
- http://www.npgcable.net/channel_lineup.html# NPG Cable communities served